Posted
by
kdawson
on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @04:31AM
from the frequently-mistaken-for-a-meatloaf dept.

An anonymous reader notes a BBC report on research recently published in the journal Current Biology, indicating that cats manipulate humans by adding a baby-like cry to their purring. "Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans. Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a 'soliciting purr' to overpower their owners and garner attention and food. Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a 'cry,' with a similar frequency to a human baby's. The team said cats have 'tapped into' a human bias — producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore."

Assuming that the cats are in fact intelligent creatures, it would make sense that they have learned this behavior. Feral cats do not exhibit this behavior, so it is most likely learned or self-developed.

However, it could also be that the constant exposure to humans and the direct selection of cats which humans like the most by the owners has led to a selection bias for cats with this behavior.

I find it hard to believe that this is somehow one of those hokey "100th monkey" behaviors, but I also find it extremely interesting that this behavior is widespread.

Thing is, cats *aren't* domesticated. They only pretend to be when it suits their purposes.

If you want to see what domesticated looks like, look at dogs, or horses. Domesticated dogs and horses take their instructions from human masters. Cats, as a rule, don't.

Cats live *among* humans and coexist more or less peacefully with them, but so do squirrels and houseflies. Cats accept food from humans and even depend on it as their main food source, but so do wild birds that eat at feeders. Cats will even occasionally approach a human and allow themselves to be petted, but only when it's their idea.

There's a continual argument between people who prefer dogs and people who prefer cats, over which kind of animal is smarter. Of course, there's a great deal of variation in intelligence from one dog to another, and one supposes there may also be from one cat to another, but fundamentally the main reason this argument has never been resolved is because nobody can really demonstrate exactly how smart cats are, because the cats don't cooperate with the study. If you've got a dog, you can find out exactly how smart he is, based on what you can teach him. A monumentally stupid dog can learn about one trick, and then when you try to teach him another, he either can't figure it out or forgets the first one. On the other end of the scale, the most intelligent dog I've ever known recognized an English vocabulary of several hundred words and understood SVO sentence order. With a dog, you can find out exactly how smart he is, because he'll cooperate with the whole exercise. A dog is a social animal. His whole life is focused around *you*. A cat is altogether a different beast. A cat does what it wants, when it wants. You can try to teach it stuff, but as a rule the cat doesn't cooperate, so you can never really be sure what it's learned and what it hasn't.

Yeah, mine wanted to get scratched every morning, so I trained him to listen for when the shower is done, wait a minute or so, and then come in. he sits patiently on the toilet seat, I scratch him for about 30 seconds to a minute and then say "All done", and he hops off and walks out. Before training him, he'd rub up against my leg all morning, driving me nuts. Now, I spend 1 minute giving him attention, he's happy, and I get my morning back.

True. You simply have to prove to the cat that it's being given the advantage by 'learning' the appropriate response. For instance, my cat will sit with (I hesitate to say 'command') the right suggestion and hand gesture. But I have to back the suggestion up with food or he gets disappointed I broke the agreement and the next time he will approach the 'sit' suggestion with wariness.

But he also trains me in return. He likes to drink from the tap, therefore he whines a particular meow until I go over and turn

Most people do some training of their cats - I don't know of many cats that do their business, say, on the couch rather than in a litter box.

I admit, I personally have never trained one, but that has more to do with allergies... my scratch test was so severe that it overran about half the other tests and ran over my shoulder (I maxed the scale and then some). Basically, cat spit=fatality for me (and yes, it is their saliva that causes the allergic reaction, not their hair as is popularly believed). Heck,

The litter box thing is more a matter of giving them something that makes following instinct more convenient for them. Cats generally prefer to bury their waste. You give a cat a box of something sandy and easy to dig through where nothing else is, and it doesn't take much to get them to use it. My current kitty it literally amounted to setting him in the litter box once when we first brought him home. He only failed to use it twice after that, once was the first time someone carried him upstairs (perso

How much of this perception is expectation?
I've had cats and dogs, and while I agree that dogs are easier to train, it is still possible to completely train your cats to respond to verbal and gestural commands.
I think a lot of people don't even try to train their cats, or treat them like untrainable companions because that is what they expect. When the cat does something bad, instead of looking how to modify the behavior, people say "oh, that's cats for you!" and then give the cat attention (either negative or positive).
I think one of the big differences between cats and dogs that set up this mentality is cats respond a lot better to negative attention than do dogs. When a dog is punished, he feels cut off from the pack, and while negative attention is slightly better than nothing for a dog, it has a more significant impact in reducing unwanted behavior when paired with intermittent positive reinforcement.
Cats on the other hand, just like attention. When training them, you just can NOT punish bad behavior unless it is a serious transgression (knocking over the tv, smothering the baby, etc). Instead you have to focus on rewarding positive behavior. So, if your cat meows a lot, don't yell at him or squirt him because he then will continue to meow--he thinks you are talking or playing with him. Instead, wait until he stops and reward the silence.
Cats are a little more like toddlers. In general, the most negative action I take is to ignore them, but then give them lots of praise and reward for acting in ways I approve.
So don't say cats don't take instruction from humans. I think it would be more accurate to say dog and horse owners take more care to understand the psychology of their pets and put more effort in training them, and as a rule, give up on cats before they even try training because they have already jumped to the conclusion it's impossible.

If you want to see what domesticated looks like, look at dogs, or horses. Domesticated dogs and horses take their instructions from human masters. Cats, as a rule, don't.

If you want to see what non-domesticated looks like, have a feral cat in your house for an hour or two. Or a feral dog.

If you and your house survive, congratulations. Cats ARE, in fact, domesticated animals, as are dogs- because they have early and often human contact. If kittens (or puppies) are not handled frequently once they get beyond a certain stage, they won't recognize or trust humans.

You're wrong; thay are domesticated, moreso than horeses and almost as much as dogs. They just have different psychologies. I taught my oldest daughter's cat to fall down and play dead when I point my finger at it and say "bang. We had cats when the kids were growing up, and the cats listened better than the kids.

I care for my oldest daughter's cats, they'll come when called and obey other instructions.

Cats live *among* humans and coexist more or less peacefully with them, but so do squirrels and houseflies.

That's bullshit. Try petting a squirrel.

The biggest difference between dogs and cats is that "nice" dogs are whores, letting anyone pet it. Try petting a mean rottweiler; I've seen dogs bite their own owners.

My neighbor had a mean black rottweiler. It used to get out *all* the time bailed all my other neighbors (and me) on our own lawns from time to time and left massive turds on the lawn, and it stank when I opened the door in the morning - thanks neighbor.

I took to spraying it with the garden hose, and when it growled at me I'd growl right back.

Eventually everyone in the street got fed up with the dog getting out all the time. The dog tur

Cats do have a strong independent streak. While they are often trainable, it does have a fair bit to do with them being willing to be trained. If they are willing or neutral about the activity being trained, they will be fairly receptive. If they dislike the activity being trained it can be difficult to impossible to train them. They most certainly can learn to come when you call them, although even well trained cats will occasionally choose not to come. My cat for example will often come to me if I talk in

Cats were domesticated normally originally in Mesopotamia, you really need to learn about cats. The wierd part is the bizzare letting the animal do what it wants holdover from a few millennium ago is all out bizzare.

My cats act like my dog. They come when called, they fetch (one LOVES fetch big time) they actually do tricks very well. And people are incredibly astonished at this. My youngest cat is not de-clawed as it is a experiment. It will NOT claw anyone it plays wi

to grown up male cats, humans are a source of food and entertainment. maybe like a brother. to females, humans are more like ofsprings. that's why they bring in dead and half-dead animals home. they want you - the human - to use that carcass/weakened creature as play toys. this teaches usefull hunting and killing skills.

* humans don't own cats. we live with them in the bast-case scenario. in the worst case, the CAT owns YOU! cue the "in soviet russia" jokes.

Our male, 20 year old tomcat had the same behavior wrt bringing home "food" for us. Not so long ago he dragged home a large rabbit he'd killed, and deposited it in front of the cupboard in the kitchen where the cookware was housed. Then he sat by it and talked until we noticed.

We figured that he wanted us to cook it up and eat it....

We lost him a couple months ago. Our lives are bleak without him - he was more intelligent than most humans, and had a very low sense of humor - is humor a mark of intelligence? We miss him terribly.

Cats are at least as intelligent as humans are. Possibly more so.

Just because humans have developed technology and the ability to destroy ourselves does not make us more sapient than anything else.

It's likely a mark against us that we can't recognize the other intelligent species on this planet we live with.

But that's just my opinion. No, I am not a member of PETA, although I do think they make some good points, mostly wrt we can't consider ourselves civilized until we stop treating even the members of our own species as objects rather than as people.

Of course it could be that I'm getting old and bitter and pissed off...

I've owned dozens of cats. All the males and all the females come by, flop near me, groom me, knead at my clothing, purr happily and relax. Sometimes if I try to leave, one of my female kitties will reach up, grab me (with claws,) and pull me back to continue grooming/kneading me. Maybe your cat was mistreated, none of mine were and they exhibited all the behaviors their mothers performed around them.

I saw a special once where a bunch of female cats on a farm developed a community. They would feed each others kittens and arrange patrols to keep aggressive males away from the young. It was communal. They were a band of mothers doing a community job.

And we have one cat here who decided same thing. We have three cats, two from a rescue shelter that were fixed as kittens, and one we found in our backyard pregnant. The cat that went through motherhood has mothering instincts, the other two do not.

Two years ago my wife got pregnant.

The mother cat knew exactly what was up, the other two did not. She would sit on her belly off to the side of the bulge and purr beside the child which would calm him down and make him sleep. She became very gingerly and delicate towards my wife. The other two didn't change their behavior - they'd step on my wife's belly and had no clue they were disturbing a baby.

On the day the kid was born I stopped back from the hospital to feed the cats. I'm sure to a cat's senses I reeked of blood and birth. Mother cat was staring at me wild eyed with suspicion, taut as a bow string. I had never seen her so tense. I spoke to her in reassuring tones and let her smell my hands where I was holding the baby. As soon as she smelled "the baby is ok and dad here didn't hurt him" she took off like a rocket and ran laps around our house. She's very fat and I had honestly never seen her run before. The cat was celebrating. I know that seems unlikely and the sort of anthropomorphizing that pet owners often times overdo - but I swear...she was celebrating! She ran a few laps around the house, jumped on one of the other cats and went for a tumble, then started loving all over me. She knew. She is lethargic otherwise. A burst of energy from this cat is completely out of character. She knew.

When the kid got home she "helped". You get a lot of visitors from people you don't see very often with a newborn in the house. Soon as one would show up, she would position herself near the baby, and *watch* the guest. Her intent was clear. "Harm that kid, do anything I don't like and I'll shred your face" It was the same pose and watchfulness she would do when her kittens were around (which we took to a no-kill shelter eventually - the same one we got our other two worthless cats from).

And the cat would praise me for being a good parent. Male cats are more of a danger to kittens than a benefit. It seemed at first she was worried it was the same with people. Any time she'd see me being good to the kid (feeding/playing/whatever) she would make it a point to come up to me and love on me. Purr louder than a lawnmower and rub on my legs. She is a very vocal proponent of good parenting. Soon as I set the kid down she'd stop. Pick him back up, she's on again.

But as for our other two cats - you're right. They definitely view us as parents, not equals. They will do that "kneading" thing with their front paws cats do when they sit on our laps. That's something kittens do to get more milk out of their mother. It's a baby reflex and they do it with us. But mom cat does not - she views us as fellow parents in the pack. So your observation is true if you have cats that have never been through parenthood, but occasionally that's not the case. YMMV though, of course. Cats are definitely unique individuals.

From what I understand, 'house cats' (i.e. cats that are raised solely by humans) never mature 'mentally' and are basicly stuck as kids for their life, as such they see their humans as 'mother'. Cats that are raised by other cats and allowed to mature mentally (i.e. learn to hunt, learn how to take care of their own young, etc) don't have this disability and thus tend to see humans as 'part of the colony'

That makes perfect sense. I've heard the same thing about dogs - basically if they have people to raise them they remain mentally a puppy. That's why they bark. Youthful exuberance, like how puppies will yip and run in circles. It's puppy behavior.

And while I don't want to take away from your feelings towards your cat, I have a feeling that when she smelt 'new birth and blood' on your hands the reason she did the laps around the house wasn't celebration but panic. In nature a male cat showing up with blood and birth smells means there is probably a kitten out there dead. Male cats aren't just "more of a danger than a benefit", they actively look for kittens and kill them as it brings the mothers into heat quicker.

Yeah, I know that about male cats. And when I first showed up she was staring at me with a sort of horrified intensity. I'm sure that was the first thought on her mind.

But you would have had to have seen her to understand. She wasn't hauling ass around looking for anything. She did circles around the living room. Pure speed, no searching for anything. I've seen her when she panics. Being a former outdoor cat when we have a thunderstorm she does indeed panic. It's unmistakable. The body language is totally different.

This was not panic. It was joy, or as close to that feeling as a cat can get and display. She ran laps, pounced on another house cat and rolled around with her, loved on me a bunch then had dinner.

I agree that on the face of it your explanation is more likely, but if you had seen her you'd know that just wasn't the case. And it went from there. This bizarre cat actually tries to encourage me to be a good parent. When I play with my kid or show affection she makes it a point to love on me. She knows deep down that males are dangerous to children, so she does her best to reinforce behavior in me that she sees as beneficial to the baby.

I know how unlikely it all sounds, so I don't blame your skepticism one bit.

To a dog, the human owner is the pack leader, who should always be followed and obeyed. To a cat, the human owner is just a convenient source of food.

I used to agree with that statement, but not anymore. We have two cats in our home. One of the two plays fetch AGGRESSIVELY. While I'm at my computer she brings me toys to throw all night. Its an interaction I didn't think possible in cats. But its not a creepy as the pack activity.

The cats follow me around from room to room while I'm home. On the few times I've argued with people in my home they either flank or circle behind the person I'm arguing with, growling and hissing the entire time. One one occasion they actually attacked someone they like because I was yelling at them.

They also seem to understand that my children are my children. They tolerate abuse from them that they wouldn't take from me or anyone else and NEVER give them any grief. They actually hang out with my 1 year old (if I'm in the room) and let her roll/drool all over them without complaint. They even go so far as to wake my wife and I up when the kids are restless at night.
Its not behavior I would have ever expected from cats.

To a dog, the human owner is the pack leader, who should always be followed and obeyed. To a cat, the human owner is just a convenient source of food.

I used to agree with that statement, but not anymore. We have two cats in our home. One of the two plays fetch AGGRESSIVELY. While I'm at my computer she brings me toys to throw all night. Its an interaction I didn't think possible in cats. But its not a creepy as the pack activity.

Almost every cat I've owned over the years has done the fetch thing to one degree or another. They all fixate on different toys/objects. I had one who loved fetching pipecleaners of all things. You could fake him out and throw it another direction and he would NOT STOP LOOKING FOR IT until he eventually found it. Hours later he would deposit it at my feet and smack me in the leg.

The cats follow me around from room to room while I'm home. On the few times I've argued with people in my home they either flank or circle behind the person I'm arguing with, growling and hissing the entire time. One one occasion they actually attacked someone they like because I was yelling at them.

I've seen this happen too. The pipecleaner-obsessed cat was a 19 LB neutered male (black). People did not like to argue with me wh

Well, as a cat owner I'm not surprised at all. My cat learned quite a few different sounds since I got her, initially it wasn't more than the common meow, but now she uses quite a few different purrs and grunts for different occasions. Like in the morning when feeding time takes too long it's almost like a dog growling in really short bursts, while when you get home it's a more like a high-pitch grunt or purr. I'm sure dogs have similar ways to show their feelings or try to communicate stuff. Cats know damn well what they can and can't do and what will happen when they act some way or another, so it's not a big step from different sounds for different events to learning that certain sounds seem to do trick.

my dog gives me a series of ruffs and whistling sounds if i don't follow the rules in the morning. likes wise if i throw the ball into a place he doesn't want to go he'll come back ruffing to me to tell me i need to be the one to fix the situation. the more i talk to him the more he does it as well.

cats and dogs are smarter than we give them credit for, when they look at you, they are thinking about something it's not just a vacant look.

cats and dogs are smarter than we give them credit for, when they look at you, they are thinking about something it's not just a vacant look.

I'm considering all these anecdotes, about cats and dogs actually being pretty smart, surfacing more and more. One didn't hear those kind of stories when I was little. So I'm wondering: perhaps it's all relative, and it's people who are getting dumber and dumber?

I think it's the opposite, that before, people (at least westerners) were too dumb to realize how intelligent they were. There's a line from the movie Little Big Man where Chief Dan George's character talks of the difference between the Natives and the transplanted Europeans (not an exact quote): "The Indian, we think everything is alive - the coyote, the bear, the trees, even the rocks. But the white man, he thinks everything is dead, and if he suspects something is alive he'll kill it."

Cats that make the most attractive noise get fed most. Have the most offspring. Eventually dominate. Given what we've done to dogs by selective breeding in just a thousand years or so, this is a simple and believable scenario. Selecting cats for their purr is no more extraordinary than, say, the difference we've created between a spaniel and a Mexican Hairless.

Erh... the flaw in your theory is that the cats that are closest to human (i.e. cats living in apartments), thus also the best fed ones, are also the ones that are most likely not able to produce any offspring...

Erh... the flaw in your theory is that the cats that are closest to human (i.e. cats living in apartments), thus also the best fed ones, are also the ones that are most likely not able to produce any offspring...

I don't know in what world you live, but those cats create offspring like rabbits! Where I live there are so many cats going outside each day and night, enough opportunity to do whatever needs to be done.

I seem to be 95% immune to my cats when they pull tricks like that. My cats know damn well that I'll feed them before going to bed. It can happen anywhere between coming home and right before actually going to bed.

My cats are persistent, make no mistake, and my wife can be very annoyed with them, but I usually wait until I happen to feel like feeding them. So if their mewling is comparable to a baby's cry I shudder to think what kind of dad I'd make;).

I should mention, though, that they have dry food available at any time so it's not like they're hungry when I feed them. It is actually a very interesting way to learn to not give in to annoying behaviour.

Something tells me lolkidz would be a really popular website for cute pictures with funny captions. Until some politician hears the name of the website and sends the FBI to shut it down with extreme prejudice without actually checking what the site is about.

Unless his cats have him so totally hypnotized he doesn't realize he's their slave. Seen teenagers do the Jedi mind trick plenty of times.

In any case, as an older guy, I remember that phase of my life when my friends would extrapolate from their pet owning experience to their incipient parental prowess. I won't spoil the fun, other than to say this: you'll find out for yourself. It's a hell of a ride, in every sense of the word.

So if their mewling is comparable to a baby's cry I shudder to think what kind of dad I'd make;).

I wouldn't worry. Most all women who have had more than one or two children know how and when to ignore a crying baby.

I've had just about any animal you could think of as a pet, but I've learned over the years that barring any individual's fascination with cats (and the requisite personality traits required for membership in a cult or a successful career as a waiter), dogs make far better pets. Hell, even for

>dogs make far better pets. [...]that will happily sleep at your feet or otherwise leave you undisturbed for hours at a time
That is just YOUR opinion, though. I think cats make far better pets. They, too, will leave me undisturbed for hours at a time and yet happily sleep in my lap.
They are interesting, soft, beautiful, loving, playful, relatively easy to care for, trainable (not as much as a dog, though), flealess (indoor), generally quiet, have a long lifespan, and self-grooming.

Well, cats and babies use what works. If a specific sound is what gets you going, then that's the sound you'll get when they want something. Which is why your approach is perfectly fine; as long as you know there's nothing really wrong, training them to sound like something's horribly amok all the time isn't desirable.

On the other hand, sometimes it's good to reinforce nice ways of asking for attention. Personally I give in and play a bit when my cats roll over on their backs and purr (just far enough out of reach so I can't pet them), or when they bring their toys to me. Or I'll look what they want if they tug at my elbow. The only annoying sound that will get them something is the plaintive meow accompanied by scratching the floor near the litter box. That one means 'the litterbox is dirty, change it or I'm gonna piss on the floor', and considering they usually have a point and a reasonable tolerance, I'll accept that one.

i noticed years ago my cat used to put on this special voice that seemed to elicit some kind of unconscious reaction in me. second time around at cat owning the little wench has tried it once or twice but i'm immune to it, the first cat overdid it and it stopped working for him.

when i first read this article i thought it was talking about the 'chirping' that cats do when they are extra happy purring, or maybe something a female cat a friend of mine has does a lot, these quiet, semi-pur semi-miao chirpy nois

i thought i should clarify about the 'special voice' i refer to, it's not that brrraaao sound, although a neighbour's cat i noticed doing that, and it resembles the call female cats do when they are on heat, which can often closely resemble a baby crying, it's a sound that's more akin to the sound of a bell being struck, a very rich resonant sound. that's the only cat miao wanting attention that i've ever found compelling, the other kind of miao is just cute and doesn't seem demanding at all.

My cat just has an annoying meow sound she makes when she wants attention. It's not cute or nice, it just grates on the nerves. She was very late in learning to meow when she wants things, so I think that has a lot to do with it. (I had another cat that took care of her and did all the asking, so she never had to. After he died, she had to learn to take care of herself and she was already like 5 years old.)

There's no doubt she learns, though... But sometimes she 'learns' things that are wrong. For instance, for some reason she thinks that I'll fill up the water bowl more often if she drops food in it. She's wrong, but she's done it for years now. There's always exactly 1 piece, no matter how far from the food bowl it is.

Just like some birds have learned to mimic the ring tones of mobile phones (and normal phones, too). There's no evolutionary pressure here, it's just that cats do have some (small - very small) glimmer of intelligence and learn that making certain noises will get them what they want. Babies also do this, so we're not talking about anything that's particularly difficult. Dogs are also known to respond to their names - though to to all the other chatter that their owners seem to think they'll understand.

In fact, pretty much any animal - even my goldfish, can be conditioned to respond to a food stimulus - they know what precedes them being fed and act accordingly.

The only surprising thing about this is that the cats haven't got their owners better trained in all this time.

Cats are very unusual in evolutionary terms. For solitary animals, they have remarkably well developed social skills. The ability to make a wide variety of vocal sounds is usually associated with social development and mating habits too.

Clearly humans have not been a major factor in their evolution - we have not been domesticating them for nearly long enough. By chance they developed into cute, furry and agreeable little things that human beings enjoy having around. They are intelligent enough to manipulate us quite successfully and yet, despite being fully aware of what is happening we accept and even enjoy it. Being highly independent they have their own little lives which fascinate us.

Maybe it's just anthropomorphism, but it's certainly highly fortunate from the cat's point of view. Average life expectancy in the wild is a few years, domesticated it's 10+.

My mothers cat was a companion to her beyond something on 4 legs that just wanted food.

Highlighted by the animal's actions previous to my mother suddenly passing away. For several weeks the cat would never leave her side, as she became ill. Then mom passed away suddenly in her sleep. The autopsy revealed a ruptured cyst around a cancerous growth on the large intestine. For a couple weeks previous to her death, she had complained the cat was licking the area just under her ribcage. The doctors were confused as to the raw area of skin on her belly area. The cat knew, and I believe was an effort to heal my mother the only way a cat knows how.

cats have not tapped into anything at any time. it was already their normal attitude. cats psychologically see humans as their mothers. both men, and women alike. it doesnt matter. therefore they do all stuff they do to their mothers, to their human companions. no surprise they also make that sound.

to 'tap' into such a thing would require a cat to observe a baby, then imitate him/her. yet, how many cats that were in the research have observed a baby crying ? how many cats were raised with a baby ?

this thing has to be just another instinctive behaviour cats do to their mothers at early age. i wonder why this schmuck didnt research whether baby cats also do that to mother cats.

Come on - we partnered with dogs 70k years ago or so, and what happened? We sat around, scratched/licked our private parts, hunted (a little), and hung out and told stories.

Then, maybe 12k-20k years ago, cats domesticated us, and the next thing you know, we're doing agriculture, and building civilization... so that they could live in the manner in which they intended to become accustomed.

It's all their fault...

mark

--The truth will out: someone got it at last:
Dogs have masters; cats have staff.

From another report from LiveScience [livescience.com], I gather that it would be most recognizable to you as being called just a "baby cry," but with a subtle sound the same as cats make when purring mixed in, rather than as purring with a crying sound, but the language is utterly ambiguous and it seems hard to distinguish when they mean meowing, purring, or whatever.

The BBC report that I heard on the radio this morning didn't suggest that the "soliciting purr" sounded recognizably like a baby's cry - but if you stick a recording of it through a spectrum analyzer you find that it has some of the same frequency components as a baby cry embedded in it. So the sound puts humans on edge and plays on their subconscious in such a way that they want to satisfy the cat and make it stop.